The Mess of Money

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, saying, “When will the sabbath be over so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit by selling the sweepings of the wheat.” The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. – Amos 8:4-6, 10a (abridged) 

Money is fake. (Hear me out.) It’s an imaginary language we invented to communicate our needs and desires and their respective values.  

Subsequently, economics is a series of fictional stories we’ve conjured to assign social purpose to the value of need and the value of desire, stories that manage our collective expectation of wellbeing. 

Stories like: your credit score is a measure of your worth. Stories like: healthy, fresh foods are bougie. Stories like: you should be grateful to have a mere 10 days of PTO each year. Stories like: everyone should have a side hustle to make ends meet. Stories like: an executive is more valuable than a teacher. Stories like: you can become a millionaire if you just give up your morning coffee. 

Stories like: if we just squeeze more value out of a limited quantity and more labor out of fewer workers, our bottom line will improve. Just shrink the dry measure of the ephah, as they were doing in the time of Amos, dilute the contents of the ephah with some milling dust from the wheat, and then increase its price tag by a few shekels.  

Bottom lines make a mess of relational lines. Fake stories about value make a mess of the ancient story of holy value. Nevertheless, our days are shaped by these fictional stories, and our bottom lines are very real. The tale entitled, “Economics,” is one in which we all take part. 

Money may be a reality of life, but that doesn’t mean money tells the true story of life. “Seek me and live,” God says in Amos. In the Holy One is our life’s value and wellbeing. 

Prayer
God almighty, this existence of ours is messy. Daily demands and social systems so often conflict with the truth of your love. Let me believe the story of love above all else.